By
attacking Assad late Friday, the Trump administration says it sought to
warn the Syrian leader against what Western nations said was his use of
illegal chemical warfare agents, following the gassing of civilians near Damascus last weekend.

The
administration calculated that the need to send a signal to Assad over
chemical weapons outweighed the possibility of provoking a response from
his allies, Russia or Iran, on the battlefield in Syria, elsewhere in
the Middle East or even in cyberspace.

The risk, analysts say,
is that the United States would then end up in a cycle of escalation
that entangles the American military more deeply in the Syrian conflict
than the administration intended.